SHFT Offers Mental Health Urgent Care

SHFT was founded by COO Genia Yovankin, and Holley Brandchaft-White, Clinical Director, founded SHFT Behavioral Health, a mental health practice with an urgent care model. Photo provided by MyWHY Agency.
SHFT was founded by COO Genia Yovankin, and Holley Brandchaft-White, Clinical Director, founded SHFT Behavioral Health, a mental health practice with an urgent care model. Photo provided by MyWHY Agency.

SHFT Offers Mental Health Urgent Care

By Tia Carol Jones

A new behavioral health clinic that opened this month is providing options for mental health urgent care for young people and their families. SHFT Behavioral Health, located at 730 N. Franklin St., was founded by COO Genia Yovankin and Clinical Director Holley Brandchaft-White.

SHFT focuses on ages 10 years old to 30 years old and their families.  Beyond urgent care mental health services, it also offers routine mental health care, medication management and therapy. Yovankin and Brandchaft-White are very passionate about serving adolescents because they acknowledge that there are so many changes happening and there can be challenges. They felt it was important to support young people as they go through life changes because it shapes the trajectory of their lives.

Yovankin and Brandchaft-White have a combined two decades of experience working in behavioral health. They saw a need for mental health services using an urgent care model because, according to Yovankin, 60% to 70% of people who go to the emergency department for mental health related needs get discharged to a lower level of care the same day.

“They don’t need to be there, they just go there because there is nowhere else, they can go when they are facing some sort of a crisis,” Yovankin said.

With SHFT, people have an alternative that is more accessible, more calming, and better suited to serve the needs of young people and families than the emergency department. SHFT offers same day, walk-in support, with no referral and no waitlist.

Those in need of services can receive a crisis assessment and one-time chat sessions are available for those who want to speak with a licensed professional. Yovankin said the chat sessions are a great way for people to feel seen and heard and get support. After the crisis assessment, people receive a treatment plan, where they can either be referred to someone else or they can continue on with SHFT.

“We didn’t want to be sending folks out, having to search for another therapist, being on a waitlist, we wanted to offer the opportunity to continue care right away so that there’s that continuity and you’re able to get help sooner rather than later,” Yovankin said.

Yovankin and Brandchaft-White believe that SHFT can help break the stigma of people seeking mental health care services. They want to make it more normal, more accessible, and less clinical.  Brandchaft-White said that SHFT is very closely aligned with suicide prevention efforts, which is why making the services accessible is so important. She said that while it feels like there is a growing awareness around the impact of mental health challenges, the range of services that SHFT offers aims to normalize mental health care.

“I think the access piece is important, just thinking about how to catch symptoms and signs in the earliest stages, to be able to address those needs and just live a much more sustainable life and be able to manage and maintain a quality of life … while feeling supported along the way,” Brandchaft-White said.

Yovankin said that being able to get someone mental health support sooner it makes such a difference. She added that the demand for mental health services far exceeds that number of mental health clinicians that exist in the United States, which is unfortunate. She said that early intervention can reduce the duration someone might need to be in care or the level of care they might need. In the long run, early interventions through the SHFT urgent care model have the potential to reduce the strain on the system, helping people, helping families and helping families.

For more information about SHFT Behavioral Health, visit www.shftbh.com.



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